WARWOLVES

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Last Updated: 
19th January 2023
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WARWOLVES

Species Name: Warwolves
Home: Created on Mojoworld, imprisoned on Earth
First Appearance: Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn

BIOLOGY & ABILITIES

Approximately the same size and shape as a wolf, Warwolves are predatory hunters that run on all-fours and possess heightened senses. With silver skin, a beak-like mouth and red eyes, they look similar to the genetically engineered Predator X of Earth, but are in no way linked.

Warwolves are able to drain the life-force of another being and wear its skin, altering their own body mass to fill the void. Despite their animalistic appearance, they are able to speak fluent English and stand on their hind legs. This makes them a master of disguise and something of an ambush predator.

They have also been shown to be immune to Rachel Summer’s telekinesis, possibly as design feature as they were originally sent to retrieve her by Mojo.

The warwolves have also been shown to be able to merge their bodies together into a gestalt form.

HISTORY

Created in the labs of Mojoworld by the planet’s tyrannical dictator Mojo, the warwolves were designed to track and apprehend their targets. When Mojo’s prisoner, Rachel Summers, escaped captivity and made her way back to Earth, Mojo sent six warwolves after her. Led by Bowser, the warwolves soon found her in London and gave chase, creating a trail of destruction behind them. As Rachel fled on a train, Bowser caught up with her, but she threw him on to the tracks, electrocuting him.

It wasn’t just the warwolves who were after Rachel, though. Saturnyne and her Technet minions also wanted to apprehend her due to her link to the Phoenix Force. After Technet captured Rachel, the warwolves ambushed them and a massive fight broke out that cost another of them their lives. Rachel’s allies showed up and attacked, forcing the remaining warwolves to flee into the sewers so they could plan their next move. [Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn]

In the meantime, Rachel and her allies had formed the superhero team Excalibur, making it harder for the warwolves to get to her. Switching tactics, the warwolves murdered a group of people and stole their skins, allowing them to walk around as humans, undetected. Using their disguises to get close to Rachel, they ambushed the woman but also ended up dealing with her teammate, Shadowcat. Unable to tell the two apart, the warwolves kidnapped both women, but had to let Rachel go when they were attacked by Excalibur. Taking Shadowcat back to their base in the sewers, they began to argue over which one of them would get to kill her and wear her skin. In the end, it was the warwolf Ducks who won, draining Shadowcat’s life force. When he went to wear her skin, he couldn’t find it but was soon shocked when he started to turn into her instead. Meanwhile, one of the other warwolves had captured Nightcrawler and brought him back to their base, inadvertently leading the rest of Excalibur to them. A fight broke out and the warwolves were soundly beaten. As Excalibur debated whether to kill them or not, Shadowcat suddenly erupted out of Ducks’ mouth, having been saved from death by her phasing power. Not wanting to kill the sentient creatures, Shadowcat convinced the rest of Excalibur to send them to the London Zoo, as a brand-new exhibit. [Excalibur (1st series) #1-2]

The warwolves spent many months imprisoned there, whilst tourists stared at the strange creatures before them. Shadowcat would often visit them, taking time to taunt them for their failures. [Excalibur (1st series) #22]

Another group of warwolves was soon sent to capture Rachel and they met up with Bowser, who had been seemingly killed during their first encounter with Excalibur. Still determined to send Rachel back to the Mojoverse, they acquired duplicate skins of some X-Men members and wore them to get close to her. The plan worked and they managed to get the drop on Excalibur and capture Rachel. As they began to open a portal back home, they were knocked into it, becoming stuck between the dimensions. They were forced to abandon their mission on Earth and head back to Mojoworld, for fear of being killed in the portal. [Excalibur (1st series) #41]

Back on Mojoworld, the numerous rebellions on the planet had finally succeeded and Mojo had been dethroned. In his place, Mojo II: the Sequel ruled and, for a while, he seemed a more benevolent leader… but that soon changed. Using the warwolves, he had them wear the skins of numerous X-Men and then kidnapped the real Wolverine, forcing him to fight the faux-X-Men. Mojo II and the warwolves were eventually beaten by Wolverine, with the help of Longshot and Dazzler. [Wolverine (2nd series) #102.5]

A team of warwolves was later sent to apprehend Franklin Richards, but the young boy escaped their clutches and made it back to his family [Fantastic Four (3rd series) #7]

In the years that passed, Excalibur disbanded and, without a superhero team in Britain keeping a close eye on them, the warwolves in London Zoo escaped. Hearing word that the team would be reforming, they split up and attacked the potential members. They should have quit whilst they were ahead, as each of the warwolves was soundly beaten and sent back to the zoo. [New Excalibur #4-5]

The group of warwolves in London Zoo gained their freedoms once more and came to work for the interdimensional slave trader Tullarmore Voge. When two of Nightcrawler’s students were kidnapped and sold on the black market, the X-Men tracked them down, resorting in Voge setting the warwolves on him. The group was delighted to see Nightcrawler, as they wanted to settle the years-old score between them. At one point, they had Nightcralwer at their mercy, but they suddenly remembered the time one of them tried stealing Shadowcat’s skin. Whilst they hesitated, Nightcrawler fought back and managed to defeat them, leaving the group humiliated again. [Nightcrawler (4th series) #11-12]

With only a handful of warwolves around, those that remained made their way back to Earth, where they were once again captured and placed in London Zoo. Wearing human skins and acting as one of them started to have an effect on the warwolves both physically and mentally. Some of them began to look more bipedal in their natural form than they used to, and their ability to shapeshift started to lesson. This may be why they were so easily acquired by Cullen Bloodstone, a rich British teenager who possessed supernatural abilities. Seeing them as an invasive species, Cullen wanted to kill the warwolves but he wanted to have a little fun in doing so. By chance, Apocalypse needed the heads of the warwolves to perform an ancient ritual and, when the newly formed Excalibur came looking for them on his behalf, Cullen proposed a game. The warwolves and Excalibur were pitted against one another on Cullen’s family estate, with things turning deadly straight away. One by one, the warwolves were killed, with Excalibur collecting their skulls for later use. When the entire group was killed, it looked like the species had been wiped out, until a baby warwolf was discovered. Unable to bring themselves to kill it, the team took it back to Krakoa, where they gave it to Rachel to raise. Naming it Amazing Baby, she hoped that by raising it right she would deter it from being a bloodthirsty creature in the future. [Excalibur (4th series) #7-8]

Amazing Baby remained loyal to Rachel, staying by her side when she joined X-Factor, and later on travelling to Otherworld with her. [X-Factor (4th series) #1-10, Knights of X #1-5]